teitz@aecom.UUCP (Eliyahu Teitz) (10/28/85)
There is alot to discuss in this week's Torah reading but I will dwell on only one point. The twenty second chapter of B'reshit ( Genesis ) starts out "And it was after these things and G-D tested ( nisa ) Abraham ( Avraham ). The stoy progresses and we know it as the familiar story of the Akayda ( when G-D told Avraham to take his son Yitzchak ( Isaac ) and sacrifice him to G-D ). We are told in Pirkei Avot ( Morals of Our Fathers - a tractate in Talmud which relates how man should act ) that G-D tested Avraham ten times and that he withstood all the tests ( he passed them all ). There is much debate as to the nature of the ten tests but the Akayda is counted as one according to all opinions. Many questions arise. 1. How exactly was Avraham being tested? 2. Why was he being tested? There are others but I can't go into them now. We are told that G-D does not test a person unless he can pas the test. If so, why was Avraham being tested at all. What is the purpose of a test that we know we will pass. An answer is given that a person has the ability to pass a test. However, if a person is not tested he himself will not know that he has this ability. An example is in order: During times of war many people receive medals for bravery. During times of peace much fewer medals are given out. Does this mean that epople are braver and more courageous in times of war than in times of peace. No. It is just that in times of peace te oportunity does not present itself. A person can not see what he is made of unless the opportunity arises. So too when G-D tests us. We have the abilityy to pass the test. We just don't have the opportunity to show ourselves what we are made of. When a person is in position of danger he reacts. Before he was in danger he could have doubted how he would act. He couldn't be sure that he would act bravely or act cowardly. When put in the situation and the outcome is bravery then we know that the person could have withstood the test because he came through it. So too with Avraham. He had the ability to pass the test. He just didn't know this himself. G-D put him in a position to show himself his loyalty. Once he passed the test, it could be said of Avraham that he would have passed the test. Avraham was tested to show himself his abilities. Had he not been tested he never would have known his potential. ( The previous idea was said by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Dean of Yeshiva Har Etzion, in Israel ). Now for the other question. What exactly was the test. It is generally explained that the test was to see if Avraham would sacrifice his son. Avraham was 100 years old when Yitzchak was born. The story of the akayda happens 36 years later. G-D tells Avraham to go and sacrifice the son he had been asking for for so long. This is a rather difficult test. Avraham is asked to sacrifice his inheritor. He is asked to show no compassion for his family's future. There is another way of explaining the test though, and it becomes necessary because of certain questions. The birth of Yitzchak was a miracle. We are told in the commentaries to the Torah that Sara could physically not have children. She did not have the ability to conceive. G-D performed a miracle and she gave birth. If so, what did Avraham have to fear of G-D's request to kill his son. Maybe G-D would give him another son. After all he had already performed that miracle once, maybe it would happen again. Another problem. One of the previous tests ( according to Ramban, Nachmanides ) was the sending away of Lot. In chapter 13 we are told of an argument between Lot's shepherds and Avraham's shepherds. Ramban explains that Avraham was being tested to see if he could send away the only relative he had ( at the time ). He was sending away his only inheritor. Avraham did send him away, in fact. If this is the case, then how was Avraham being tested. We already know, and Avraham does too, that he can send away his only inheritor. So what would be gained by sacrificing Yitzchak. It would be a duplicate test, which wouldn't be necessary. If however we explain the test differently these problems wouldn't arise. The test was to see if Avraham was willing to throw away his life's work at G-D's say so. Avraham had spent his whole life teaching monotheism, and going away from paganism. If Avraham's neighbors would have heard that Avraham killed his son they would have said that he finally saw how foolish he was in his preaching monotheism, and that he had finally returned to the more sensible paganism. No matter how much Avraham would have protested that he was really serving G-D and that G-D told him to do it and that is was part of monotheism because G-D commanded him to do it, no one would have listened. Avraham's whole life's work would have been wasted. Even if Avraham would have had another son after Yitzchak it wouldn't have helped, because the cause Avraham was championing would have been forgotten. G-D wanted to see how far Avraham was willing to follow Him. It would have been perfectly reasonable for Avraham to tell G-D that He would be setting his cause back generations by one small act. Better not to do it than to hurt the cause. But we see that Avraham didn't do this. He trusted that G-D knew what He was doing when He told Avraham to kill Yitzchak, so he didin't complain. This is what G-D wanted to see. To see that Avraham cared more about doing G-D's will than his own honor. This is the lesson we shold take from this week's Torah reading. Eliyahu Teitz.